Foundation garment



Nov. 29, 1949 J. w. RUBIN FOUNDATION GARMENT Filed March 19, 1947INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 29, 1949 T O FF l CE FOUNDATION GARMENTJulius W. Rubin, Bronx; N; Application March 19, 1947 Serial No 735,729.

5 Claims. 1

This invention relates to foundation garments such as girdles, corsetsand the like andf'more particularly to. improvements in the constructionof such garments whereby both vertical and transverse support or bracingis provided in that portion of the garment covering the abdomen of thewearer.

My invention not only provides an improved garment but it alsosimplifies the manufacturing operations to a considerable extent.

It has been the practice heretofore to provide number of vertical staysaffording the desired bracing or supporting effect in the garment and insome instances it has been proposed to provide within the garment alattice work of stays crossing each other at numerous points, thearrangement of the stays being such as to stifien or reiniorce thegarment over a considerable area of the surface thereof. The cost ofmanufacturing foundation garments having such vertical stays or such alattice work of stays crossing; each other is considerable because ofthe necessity for attaching the stays to the garment by stripping whichinvolves the use ofv expensive attachments ona two-needle machine. Wherethe stays are arranged to cross each other, the points at which thestays intersect provide bulky sections in the garment due to thecombined thickness of the overlying stays and the material surroundingthem.

In general, the objects of my invention are attained by providing aunitary bracing member preferably comprising a single piece of resilientstay material formed so as to provide. what may be characterized as aplurality of vertical stay elements permanently interconnected by aplurality of transverse stay elements, some of which are located atpoints intermediate thev ends of the vertical stay elements. Thus atypical embodiment of my invention comprises a founda tion garmenthaving secured to. that. portion thereof which covers the abdomen ofthewearer a unitary stay structure having. a pair of vertical stayspermanently interconnected at their lower extremities by a'transversestay which is preferably integral with the vertical stay elements. Anadditional vertical stay element may be provided between this pair" of.vertical stay elements, this additional vertical, stay. element beingpermanently secured to or integral with at least one of the transversestay elements. Thus by providing what is, in effect, a one-piece bracingmember comprising permanently interconnected vertical and transversestay elements, all overlapping or crossing of the conventional stayswith their strippim; andinterlining is eliminated This eliminatesbulkiness and provides a smooth construction.

Another feature of my invention is the, con-:- struction andarrangement. of thestay elements off. the, bracing, member so. as toveliminate sharp stay end to; a considerable extent.

Another feature of my invention is the provision' of improved means forsecuring my im-. proyedbracing member to the garment, the constructionof this securing means being preferably su h, that, the bracing memberas a complete unit may be readily removed from the garment to.facilitate laundering and also to facilitate the attachment to thegarment of bracin members. ofj'varyin length or width asdesired. Thus myimproved bracing member may be secured in a poclyet defined by twolayers of the material of which the garment is composed, or preferablyaseparate' pocket, of a size to accommodate the bracing member isattached to the garment by t t h n r o h r i e and h s po et m y a adetachable closure member so that the, bracihg member can. be removedwhenever desired, or replaced by another bracing member of a differentsize.

In a preferred embodiment of my invention, one or more of" thetransverse stay elements are substantially V-shaped, thus providingsomewhat greater flexibility of the bracing member in the transversedirection. Regardless of whether the transverse stay elements areV-shaped or straight; my improved bracing member provides a smoothercontour than the conventional stays heretofore employed in foundationgarments.

The various objects and advantages of my invention will be more apparentupon considering the following detailed description of typicalembodiments thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawings in, whichFig, i represents a foundation garment employing my improved bracingmember;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section view of a portion of the garment, takenon line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig 3 is a plan view of a. retaining pocket for ecuring he bra g mb r ohe arment;

Fig 4 is a fragmentary plan view of the pocket etainin memb r of. F 3 lu ratin d tails ithe detac ab e closure;

Fig 5 is. a perspective view of the bracing member forming, a part ofthe garment of Fig. 1;

and.

Big. 6 aperspective view of a modified form f brac ng memb r-.

In the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 illus= trates, a girdle type offoundation garment havn the s al b k secti n L, side sections 2 a 3 anda, front section 4. adapted to, coverthe ab-. domenof'th wearer. Securedto the front .sec-

.tion 4 of the garment illustrated in Fig. 1 is a bracing memberiCQIlSiStillg of a pair of vertical stay elements; a and 1,; anintermediate ver-. cal stay e m n 8, a d. t e transverse y ments. 9 HI de bo to ay e eme 9 is substantially reshaped and permanently.

interconnects the lower extremities of the marginal vertical stayelements 6 and 1. The additional transverse stay elements I and H alsopermanently interconnect the marginal stay elements 6 and i and theintermediate vertical stay element 8 is permanently connected to thetransverse stay element 1 I.

While my invention is not limited to vertical and transverse stayelements formed of a single piece of flexible material such as corsetstay steel, yet I prefer to make the bracing member out of a singlepiece of material, thus providing an integral structure having nooverlapping portions. Regardless of whether the bracing memberconsisting of the several transverse and vertical stay elements is madeof a single piece of material, I prefer to form this element in such amanner that it is of uniform thickness throughout.

In Fig. 1, the bracing member 5 is shown secured to that portion of thegarment which covers the abdomen of the wearer and while this bracingmember may be secured to the garment in various way as by inserting itbetween two layers of the fabric forming the front portion of thegarment, I prefer to secure the bracing member to the garment byutilizing a pocket made of fabric material or the like and of sufficientdimensions to accommodate the bracing member. This pocket, bestillustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, may be stitched orotherwise permanentlyfixed to the front portion of the garment 4 and this pocket ispreferably provided with a detachable closure so that the bracing membercan be readily removed to facilitate laundering of the garment or forreplacing the bracing member with another bracing member of differentconstruction or dimensions as may be desired.

The pocket securing member l2 can be made of cloth or other flexiblematerial and any desired detachable closure may be provided for thispocket; for example, as best illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, thisdetachable closure may consist of snap fastener tape strips 13 and Idhaving several snap fasteners is associated therewith so that thisclosure may be snapped shut or pulled open as desired to facilitateinsertion and removal of the stay I2 has outer and inner sections 16 andH and the marginal portions of this pocket may be stitched or otherwisepermanently fixed to the front portion of the garment l as shown at 18and I9.

A modified form of bracing member is illustrated in Fig. 6 wherein themarginal vertical stay elements 6 and l are permanently interconnectedby a pair of V-shaped transverse stay elements 9 and 20, an intermediatevertical stay element 2| being permanently fixed to the transverse stayelement 20. The bracing member illus-. trated in Fig. 6 is somewhat moreflexible in the transverse direction than that illustrated in Fig. 5 andthe V-shaped transverse stay elements 9 and 2! contribute to thisflexibility. In the bracing member of Fig. 5, the transverse members Itand ii are straight and therefore provide greater stiffness in thetransverse direction than is the case with the construction employed inFig. 6.

It will be understood that in the typical examples of my inventionillustrated in the accompanying drawing the vertical stay elements ofthe bracing member provide a support or bracing effect in the verticaldirection parallel bracing member 5. The pocket with these elements,while the transverse stay elements provide a similar efiect in thetransverse direction. My improved bracing member provides a structurehaving relatively few sharp ends that might cut the fabric of thegarment and in general it will be understood that a bracing member madein accordance with my invention provides an improved flexible support orbracing means having a smooth contour.

It is to be understood that my invention is not limited to the specificembodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described indetail above but includes such modifications thereof as fall within thescope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a garment of the type described having a front portion forcovering the abdomen, a unitary bracing member for said portion of thegarment, said member comprising a pair of marginal vertical stayelements, an intermediate vertical stay element, and a pair oftransverse stay elements vertically spaced from each other andpermanently interconnecting the marginal stay elements at points betweenthe extremities thereof.

2. A garment stay bracing member comprising a pair of marginal verticalstay elements, an intermediate vertical stay element, and a pair oftransverse stay elements vertically spaced from each other andpermanently interconnecting the several vertical stay elements at pointsintermediate the ends of the marginal stay elements.

3. A garment stay bracing member comprising vertical stay elementsspaced from each other, a transverse stay element permanentlyinterconnecting the lower extremities of at least two of said verticalstay elements and a V- shaped transverse stay element permanentlyinterconnecting the vertical stay elements at a point between theextremities thereof.

4. In a garment of the type described having a front portion forcovering the abdomen, a bracing member for said portion of the garment,said member comprising a pair of marginal vertical stay elements, and apair of V- shaped transverse stay elements vertically spaced from eachother and permanently interconnecting said marginal stay elements.

5. A garment stay bracing member comprising a pair of vertical stayelements spaced from each other and a pair of transverse stay elementspermanently interconnecting said vertical stay elements, at least one ofsaid transverse stay elements being V-shaped and permanentlyinterconnecting the vertical stay elements at a point between theextremities thereof.

JULIUS W. RUBIN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,568,894 Littlejohn et a1. Jan.5, 1926 1,606,709 Lancaster Nov. 9, 1926 1,647,023 Shepard 1- Oct. 2-5,1927 1,693,030 Greenberg Nov. 27, 1928 1,893,960 Pease Jan. 10, 19332,139,305 Friend Dec. 6, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date369,204 Great Britain Mar. 11, 1932

